Mid-century modern

A Mid-Century Eye: The Collection of Colleen Sullivan

Now playing: The Beauty Room - Visions of Joy

Meanwhile...

Upstairs, Louis is gone...

replaced by  George.

A quick snap after installing the artwork.

Now playing: Adele - Rolling In The Deep

September issue

And it's back to school.

From the ground up.

The basement kitchen of the house that I originally, and rather wantonly, described as a very poor mix of neo Georgian, Arts and Crafts, and contemporary Scandinavian elements. With an absolutely hideous reproduction Louis XV chimney thrown in for good measure.  Whilst the assessment may have indeed been accurate, it failed to acknowledge that this was in fact once someone's house. And they undoubtedly thought it perfect. For them, it more than likely was.

However, to this jaundiced eye,  the house was lacking. 

Beginning with the kitchen and its adjacent rooms. The cherry wood cabinetry (replete with its quasi-Shaker details) and granite work surfaces looked dated and commonplace. And the overly bright colour scheme throughout seemed desperately cheerful.

Luckily the cabinets were beautifully made. And contrary to the current vogue of ripping out for ripping out's sake it was unilaterally decided to restyle the existing kitchen. Which, incidentally, had the most beautiful copper clad baseboards that would inspire the colour palette and the kitchen's details.

On the way to completion.

The kitchen walls were painted a dark green that was further deepened by 20%. The adjacent spaces were painted different shades of verdigris. With the space farthest away from the kitchen painted in the same dark green used as a tent stripe.

The morning room's rather innocuous cast iron Art Nouveau  chimneypiece was replaced

 with a larger ceramic Arts and Crafts example.

Now playing:  amp fiddler - Faith

To use, or not to use

That is the question.

 

Has Farrow & Ball become too commonplace?

Ay, there's the rub.

Now playing: B.B. King with Eric Clapton and Phil Collins - The Thrill Is Gone

Made of green silk with a golden weft, sixty miles long and sixty miles wide

...when Solomon sat upon the carpet he was caught up by the wind, 

and sailed through the air so quickly that he breakfasted at Damascus and supped in Media.

Now playing: Steppenwolf - Magic Carpet Ride

Reality (tele)vision

Ward Bennett lounge chair manufactured by Brickel Associates, c. 1970

Ward Bennett interviewed by Barbaralee Diamonstein-Spielvogel

Interior Design: The New Freedom - Ward Bennett, 1981
 

Part of the Diamonstein-Spielvogel Video Archive, Duke University Libraries

Now playing: Tears For Fears - Pale Shelter

Northern light

Early 18th century German Baroque bureau cabinet, Hannover

The arched top carved with shell and female portrait, the upper part with one door enclosing several drawers, the fall front enclosing a fitted interior above graduated drawers on square tapering legs.

By repute,  this bureau was a wedding gift from Frederic, Prince of Wales to Lady Anne, 2nd Countess of Orkney and William O'Brien, 4th Earl of Inchiquin in 1720.

19th century George III style giltwood framed sofa

With a shaped back, outswept arms terminating in scrolls and a serpentine fronted seat on tapering fluted legs and spade feet.

Swedish 18th century Rococo gilt mirror
 

All that is missing is the right client with the right house.

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at Home

Lord and Lady Rendelsham

Their Chelsea house (also decorated by David Mlinaric) as it appeared in The World of Interiors, 1988.

The house was in fact only twelve feet wide and arranged over three floors benefiting from a courtyard almost as large as the house itself. In the courtyard were two mulberry trees planted by James I in order to encourage silk weaving in England.

The drawing room

The drawing room chimneypiece designed by Mlinaric

The libray/dining room with its very Soane like ceiling

Lady Rendlesham's bedroom reflected in an English 18th century tear drop mirror

Sadly,  Clare Rendlesham died shortly after the house was completed.

Scale Model by Mirabel Cecil

The World of Interiors July/August 1988

Photography by Fritz von der Schulenburg

Now playing: Brian Eno - An Ending (Ascent)

Thinking

This

+

This (in black)

Now playing: Human League - Together In Electric Dreams, Extended Mix

Too old to be young.

And, too young to be old. 

Without saying it, that is what my client meant.

And that shall be the premiss when we begin their new house.

The double drawing room.

Currently a very poor mix of neo Georgian, Arts and Crafts, and contemporary Scandinavian elements. 

 With an absolutely hideous reproduction Louis XV chimney thrown in for good measure. 

Luckily, we had concentrated on a few good pieces for their transitional rental.

Current inspirations for the new house:

Lady Ottoline Morrell 

photographed by Baron Adolph de Meyer, 1907

Fontana Arte and Cole & Son

And, the randomness life can bring.

Now playing: Deee-Lite - Groove Is In The Heart

at Home

Lord and Lady Rendlesham

Their country house decorated by David Mlinaric in the late 1970s.

 

from Mlinaric on Decorating

David Mlinaric, The end of the Sixties - 
 

Everybody was to some extent camera shy. Nobody really wanted to go over the top in being conspicuous. The magazines that were interested in exposing this new thing, like Vogue or Queen were fairly uncritical to begin with, not like nowadays where everybody wants to score points off somebody else. The current celebrity thing has a lot to do with making a lot of money and we didn't have that aspiration. You could go out to lunch for seven and sixpence, and if you got fifty pounds for a photo shoot in a German magazine … you would just go out to lunch. We never thought it was the target, to make a lot of money. 

Now playing:  Big Country - In A Big Country